In not the first attack of its kind, the semi-official newspaper of the Vatican has likened global moves towards marriage equality to 20th century socialist promises which “deceived humanity”.

As the front page article of L’Osservatore Romano, historian Lucetta Scaraffia, a 64-year-old former feminist activist who later became a fervent Catholic, wrote on the issue, reports the State Journal Register.

She wrote that the idea of marriage equality came from the same “egalitarian utopia that did so much damage during the 20th century … deceiving humanity as socialism did in the past.”